A customer with a complaint has one basic thought: "Get this situation resolved and then I'll decide if you'll have another chance at my business." Negative Word-of-Mouth is the one power every customer can exercise. Sadly, they often forget to tell about those great experiences, but they never miss a chance to tell about how horribly they were treated.

Every dining experience comes with a promise from you to your customers. Complaints are nothing more than a break of trust, real or imagined. Your handling of a complaint must convince the customer that the negative experience was unintentional and that you are truly sorry, if not absolutely embarrassed. Leave the customer with an apology and apologize big, for even the smallest broken promise.

Guest feedback systems do more than make it easier to complain, they also make it easy for your customers to make suggestions and to praise good service. You would be surprised at how many positive comments you can generate if you will just make responding easy.

As you begin to actively solicit customer input, you will be surprised at the number of positive comments. In some restaurants, positive comments outweigh the negative nearly twenty-five to one. Every positive comment needs a reply. Then, your customers feel more involved in the business. They seem to enjoy rewarding their favorite employee with their handwritten praise.

Shawn Fox of Frontier Pies Restaurant stated, "One customer suggested that several plaques that we had hanging on the wall should be moved from behind a plant. We moved them. Another suggested, to our embarrassment, that our dining room needed a fresh coat of paint. We painted."

But here is the really important point of customer feedback systems: They give you an opportunity to establish a personal relationship with your Customers. To do this you must respond -- personally -- to every response, good, bad, or indifferent.